-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- It 's an unreal scene , like one from a horror film .

Here 's how Tulsa World editor Ziva Branstetter described Oklahoma 's botched execution on Tuesday of convicted killer Clayton Lockett :

• 6:28 p.m. Fifty milligrams of midazolam have been injected into each of Lockett 's arms to start the process , an attempt to sedate him before the second and third drugs are administered to stop the breathing and the heart . Lockett has spent the past several minutes blinking and occasionally pursing his lips .

• ... 6:37 p.m. . The inmate 's body starts writhing and bucking and it looks like he 's trying to get up . Both arms are strapped down and several straps secure his body to the gurney . He utters another unintelligible statement . Defense Attorney Dean Sanderford is quietly crying in the observation area .

• 6:38 p.m. Lockett is grimacing , grunting and lifting his head and shoulders entirely up from the gurney . He begins rolling his head from side to side . He again mumbles something we ca n't understand , except for the word `` man . '' He lifts his head and shoulders off the gurney several times , as if he 's trying to sit up . He appears to be in pain .

State officials reportedly were unsure how much of the second and third drugs that were supposed to kill Lockett were actually injected into his body .

While the third was being administered , Lockett 's vein `` exploded , '' Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton told reporters .

He called the execution off . Then the inmate , Patton told the media , died of an apparent heart attack at 7:06 p.m.

Perhaps some supporters of the death penalty find comfort in the fact that death by lethal injection is supposed to be painless -- more sterile than a firing squad , more clinical than the electric chair . For those people , perhaps , Oklahoma 's botched execution will be a wake-up call -- a realization that all executions , regardless of method , are cruel and not especially unusual in parts of the United States .

But in Oklahoma -- where both the firing squad and the chair are still statutory alternatives to the needle , if other methods were to be deemed unconstitutional by the courts -- method and morality do n't seem to matter much .

This is the state -- the state where I grew up , by the way , and where I once worked as a newspaper reporter -- that has the highest per capita rate of executions in the country . Nationally , support for the death penalty has declined from a high of 80 % in the 1990s to only 60 % now , according to Gallup . States such as Connecticut , Maryland and New Mexico recently have abolished this abhorrent practice . It 's unclear if public opinion in Oklahoma mirrors the national trend , statistically , but anecdotal evidence suggests the state supports , if not celebrates , state-sponsored death .

`` Give them a bonus ! '' one commenter wrote on The Oklahoman 's website , apparently referring to the executioner or state officials .

`` I hope that man was in more pain than anyone ever imagined possible , '' a woman from Oklahoma wrote on Facebook , echoing a sentiment I saw repeated .

Not everyone reacted this way , to be sure . But an outsider could be forgiven for seeing politicians in the state who support these unethical policies as death-hungry and vengeful .

History would support that view as well .

It was Oklahoma , after all , in 1977 , that was the first state to authorize death by lethal injection . That decision was made , in part , because Oklahoma was `` facing the expensive prospect of fixing the state 's broken electric chair , '' and lethal injections were cheaper , according to Human Rights Watch .

It was Oklahoma , in 1988 , that lost an argument before the U.S. Supreme Court that it should be able to execute a man who was convicted of murder at age 15 .

And it was Oklahoma , just this year , that executed a 38-year-old man , Michael Wilson , whose last words , just a moment before his death , were , `` I feel my whole body burning . ''

Yet , the state proceeded with Lockett 's execution this week . And it did so , according to The Guardian , using `` dosages never before tried in American executions . ''

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin was forced to show some sense when she ordered a stay of a second execution -- of convicted child rapist and murderer Charles Warner -- that was scheduled to occur after Lockett 's on Tuesday . That a state was going to execute two men in one night drew international curiosity and condemnation . It rattled some feathers in Oklahoma , as there were protesters at the Capitol . But the governor and many residents were unmoved .

No one would dispute that Lockett 's crime was unthinkably heinous : He was convicted of shooting 19-year-old Stephanie Neiman before watching his accomplice bury her alive . But that does n't excuse the state from ordering his death , especially in this way .

Both Lockett and Warner 's sentences had been contested in court , with attorneys for the inmates arguing that the state can not withhold the exact source of the drugs it planned to use for the executions . A political circus ensued , and the court , in the view of Andrew Cohen , a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice , `` caved in to the political pressure . ''

Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Steven Taylor wrote , in agreement with the court , that Lockett and Warner had no right to know the source of the chemicals . '' ... -LRB- I -RRB- f they were being hanged , they would have no right to know whether it be cotton or nylon rope ; or if they were being executed by firing squad , they would have no right to know whether it be by Winchester or Remington ammunition , '' he wrote , according to news reports .

States have been scrambling to come up with drugs they can use to kill people since some drug makers stopped selling them for such purposes .

Fallin has called for an investigation into the botched execution . As part of that , she should make the source of Oklahoma 's drugs known .

But Oklahoma seems to be a place hell-bent on secrecy .

Near the end of the Tulsa World editor 's journal of events , Ziva Branstetter writes that `` blinds are lowered '' and reporters were not allowed to see what happened in the final moments of Lockett 's life . `` Reporters exchange shocked glances , '' she wrote at 6:39 p.m. `` Nothing like this has happened at an execution any of us has witnessed since 1990 , when the state resumed executions using lethal injection . ''

Reporters were escorted to a white van outside the state penitentiary in McAlester , Oklahoma , which is commonly known as `` Big Mac . ''

They were told to leave their state-issued pens , Branstetter wrote .

One could find hope in that moment -- could think that the state realizes that if witnesses saw what happened after the curtain fell , they would be shocked into action . That seems like a plausible explanation , but I still have my doubts .

The death penalty is on its way out in America .

But it 's got a cold grip on Oklahoma .

@highlight

Oklahoma botches first of two executions scheduled for Tuesday

@highlight

John Sutter : The horrific scene wo n't change attitudes in the state

@highlight

Sutter writes that some locals more or less celebrated the botched execution

@highlight

The death penalty still has a `` cold grip on Oklahoma , '' he writes